Saturday

One of the biggest concerns for a dog owner is dog allergies. Allergies can happen to any dog of any breed, although some breeds are more susceptible than others. Among the most common types of dog allergies is food allergy and can lead to indigestion for one’s dog. The trouble with food allergies however, is that its symptoms tend to be latent for quite some time, even despite the dog’s regular consumption of food.

Should this happen to your dog, don’t make the mistake of assuming that they are experiencing something akin to human food allergies. Most dogs don’t get food allergies unless they have eaten it food on a regular basis. Dogs are resilient animals and they can eat a type of food which they are allergic to and not show any symptoms until after a month or so.

Like all animals dogs can show intolerance to certain food stuffs, but that does not necessarily mean that they are allergic to it. Allergies may result in skin irritation, and may not even illicit any reaction from your dog until it’s too late. Food intolerance on the other hand can be likened to food poisoning. It results in a serious case of indigestion and threat to dog health.

A lot of pet gurus these days point to lamb and rice diets as the solution for food allergies from dogs. Unfortunately, this is still a new type of diet and whether or not it’s effective is something which the jury is still out on. It is also possible that given a dog’s tolerance levels, allergies for any new diets will not be known until a certain period of time has passed. So it’s best not to put one’s hopes on a diet alone.

Sometimes, the only way to overcome dog food allergies is through experimentation. Through the process of elimination, you can try feeding your dog various food stuffs to find out which of them he is allergic to. It’s not going to easy but each dog has different levels of tolerance just like people, and the only way to be sure is to check your dog’s reaction to each type of food you feed him.

The tricky part is that you may need to wait a month, perhaps longer, to accurately determine if your dog really is allergic to something or not. Allergens tend to stick around especially in animals and it will take some time before they are completely eliminated from your dog’s system.

And in case your dog does catch allergies and his fur is falling off at a fast rate, the best thing that you can do for him is to bring him to a vet for a medical exam, so that tests may be applied to see what type of health problems your dog may have developed as a result of eating something he is allergic to.